Thomas Wohlfeld

The Climb

Precision defined the early kitchens Thomas Wohlfeld moved through: not as a style choice, but as a working standard. At Restaurant Zur Säge in Switzerland, he worked as chef at Felix & Sandra Suter’s 1-star Restaurant Zur Säge, where exacting expectations shaped the line and the room in equal measure. He later worked as chef at Tim Mälzer’s Off Club in Hamburg, carrying that same discipline into a different kitchen identity. The thread across those posts is consistency — learning how to build a dish so it reads clearly under pressure. Handwerk has been the next fixed point in that progression since 2017, where Thomas Wohlfeld became Head Chef. The move reflects a career built through kitchens with defined standards and strong frameworks, with responsibility expanding step by step rather than by display.

Today

Since 2017, Handwerk in Hanover has been the kitchen Thomas Wohlfeld leads, and he has also served there as chef de cuisine. The restaurant works within French-Asian cuisine, while his own approach stays pared back and structural. He describes it plainly: “We try to be very reduced. We try to create the same flavor profile with one product as if there were several.” Reduction, in his view, is not an absence of work but a way of concentrating it. Thomas Wohlfeld frames cooking as both technique and interpretation, saying, “Cooking is not just craft because… it is also art.” That mix of discipline and expression runs through the way he talks about the kitchen as a place of constant revision, where new dishes demand continual invention. On that work, he says, “Creating new dishes requires a never-ending tide of imagination, commitment and passion. It’s always a fresh challenge – and we always aim to give our guests an unforgettable experience.”

Signature

Thomas's signature dishes include veal tartare with wasabi, salty tuile pastry, pea ice cream, Rohe Roulade, Pointed Cabbage with Ponzu and Pistachio, Langoustine | Dashi, and Venison | Cranberry | Parsley Root. Read together, they point to a kitchen organized around restraint, contrast, and clear structure, with each plate carrying more than one register without losing its line.

In Their Words “Creating new dishes requires a never-ending tide of imagination, commitment and passion. It’s always a fresh challenge – and we always aim to give our guests an unforgettable experience.” “We try to be very reduced. We try to create the same flavor profile with one product as if there were several.”

Recognition

The work is legible in the menu language: reduced, structured, and built on repetition done with intent rather than excess. Thomas Wohlfeld’s cooking draws authority from holding back, letting one ingredient do more than one job, and treating economy as a tool for completeness rather than limitation.